5280MeV wrote:I think that it is an absolutely beautiful piece of artwork, it looks great on the playa, it certainly adds to the event, I would have been amazed by it, it sounds like she was fairly responsible about MOOP overall, and I am against making such exceptions.

I respectfully disagree with you and JK, and will resort to quoting Red Foreman from That '70s Show (the closest embodiment of my grandfather ever on TV.). "Rules are rules, son, and without them we might as well still be living in trees flinging crap at each other..."

Judging by comments from cleanup crews, not to mention her statement that she makes friends follow her around and clean up after her, I don't have much reason to believe that she's being responsible at all.

To me, it isn't beautiful at all. It looks like a bantam playa chicken or something out of a Foster Farms commercial. And even if it's the best bird costume ever out there (it's not), her attitude about it on her blog makes her ugly. She sure knows she's beautiful, though.

With all of the abuse people got for showing up a little early on the playa, why should she get a pass for flagrantly, deliberately violating the rules and then telling people she feels no remorse for it afterward? Just my opinion.

Hey, I already said that if that was the consensus of opinion, let's have the LEO's start ticketing and fining people that break the rules. Rules with no consequences are usually disobeyed, and obviously, the 10 principles aren't enough of a deterrent to rule braking.

Oh, and she already said that she wouldn't be bringing that outfit back again. (you must not have read her blog lately)

Yea, I also stated that I am against exceptions. So I am not fully sure where the disagreement is, aside from aesthetics.

But if I assume the veracity of her account, then this is why I don't think that it is fair to direct all blame at her:

"What I find even more interesting, and quite confusing, is that I received my Burning Man ticket from dancing in that feathered embodiment at the Burning Man Artumnal fundraiser with Seraphim, and we were asked to perform that very show at center camp. "

So if the folks from center camp are giving her a ticket and setting up a performance at center camp, then it seems that she already got a an official exemption. Apparently, the rules do not apply equally to everyone, or maybe they do, depending on department?

Wasn't there a huge issue with this with "Crude Awakening" where the artists thought they had an exemption to the no plants rule and then gate felt otherwise?

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Unrelated, but I think that her environmental argument about feathers decomposing in a month is wrong. From what I read, waste chicken feathers are a pretty serious industrial pollutant, and feathers take 5-7 years to decompose. Keratin is tough stuff! I am not sure how the playa conditions with alternating wetness and dryness, odd biosphere, and extreme alkalinity would affect decomposition time.

Furthermore, my understanding is that LNT is the direct result of BLM regulations, and the environmental angle is simply an ideological marriage of convenience as many burners have an environmental bent anyway. Burning Man may be an environmental house of horrors, but use restrictions on the government land simply require picking up all solid bits of waste independent of how much CO2 and dioxin like chemicals get thrown into the atmosphere.

Depending on who you talk to, there are some that feel just the event itself is a detrement to the playa and shouldn't be allowed to happen there. To those people, just getting a permit to be there is an exception to their rules. Would we have all those rules if they weren't required by BLM?

JKhttp://www.mudskippercafe.comWhen I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

MOOP is MOOP. Period. The Playa is a living thing that emerges when graced by water. Ya, you didn't SEE any. But its there. Waiting for a chance to be.

We all have attitudes and habits of default that are not appropriate in BRC.I caught myself not being careful about ashes from my cigars. Felt a pang of embarassment, and stopped that shit immediately. I'd already captured the hair from my brush and stowed it. At least I had that presence of mind. LNT is a attitude, practice and responsibility. BM is a chance to practice and internalize that attitude. For a good reason.

You must BE the change you want to see in the world.

We teach our children (and our Burgins) by our actions. What we do, not what we think we do or what we intend to do. Example is everything. LNT.

My thoughts are with the DPW now. If I'd not needed to make a living, I'd be there with them. I saw the massive MOOP trail as I left Monday. My heart sank through the floorboards. I think I'll find a way to bring them something to support them on my way to Idaho next week. Its way off course for me, but I think my soul needs it. The sight of that MOOP made me sad. I've forgotten how to be angry.

So ya. Fuck the feathers. Unless she has a bubble-boy costume to go with it. And no, ya gotta stay in the bubble until ya get to Fernley.

The LNT effort on the part of the org and volunteers with DPW, Rangers, the Earth Guardians, and others who visit the desert year-round extends beyond the event's time frame and physical boundaries. LNT is just what you try do on any public lands if you want to act responsibly, though it's nominally more codified in the BLM's stipulations attached to the event permit, in the Survival Guide, and hopefully as part of any experienced person's advice on how to act in the desert.

Sure, food packaging and cigarette butts might make up a greater bulk of the event moop, but feathers just seem to stand out more, and no, they aren't going to compost themselves any faster than a Marlboro butt. Self-control among participants re: loose plant material took years to accomplish, even with a de facto ban, I believe partly because people would see green bamboo or palm fronds or fresh tree limbs used by some idiots at one year's event, then think it's okay to use that sort of stuff the following year. Ergo, I predict dozens of idiots are going to see the published photo of that cunt's chicken outfit and will try to replicate it in some half-assed fashion.

Winter does not give us a pristine playa surface, there was a very crusty earplug when we began to set up. Last year there was black hair buried in the playa on our spot. As if we were perchedon an old greywater dump. Ick.

jkisha wrote:A dancer from San Francisco who calls herself Ka appeared at Burning Man 2012 in a breathtaking full-body outfit made almost entirely of feathers.

By breath taking it means I would have fucking clobbered her with a fizz ball bat and taken her breath away. Fucking dizzy bitch. ugggg!!

She was invited to perform and was even given a ticket.

And how is physically accosting someone elevating the argument?

"What I find even more interesting, and quite confusing, is that I received my Burning Man ticket from dancing in that feathered embodiment at the Burning Man Artumnal fundraiser with Seraphim, and we were asked to perform that very show at center camp. "

JKhttp://www.mudskippercafe.comWhen I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

haha I thought the same thing when I saw the Rolling Stone article.. there were so many headdresses and feathered wings etc, unfortunate that not everyone respects the rules but then I suppose it's bound to happen.

Wearing feathers, especially in a pic in Rolling Stone, is just blatant breaking of the ten principles. Sure I dont mind a feather or 100 strewn across the playa, there are much more toxic things to consider, but its just the fact that it disregards the principles. Its a grand statement that you dont give a shit about the ten principles. I dont care if the Borg wiped your ass on Christmas and begged you to bring your chicken ass costume. It just states that your look/costume/ritual/whatever is more important than working as a city/unit and just obey a few laws to help the clean up be easier so we can all return with as little trace as possible.

Oh bull shit. She was conscientious about the MOOP. Maybe more people should spend their time on educating people that buy bikes for the event from walmart, assemble them on the playa and then just throw the entire assembly and warranty packets to the wind. And all the other weekend ravers that couldnt give a shit less about the 10 principles and leave no trace rules. And then there's the sound camps. She was creating art. All the art out there has a MOOP factor, just look at what's left over after the temple and man burns. What is the point of making her the villian and the scape goat when there are many more egregious offenders that you should be worrying about. Use some common sense people. Shoot the duck.

JKhttp://www.mudskippercafe.comWhen I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

Because her pic was in Rolling Stone so it harbors attention. I dont think anyone thinks that what she did was wrong, and knows there was much more right to it than wrong. I dont think it is her that people are actually mad at, its whoever chose that to be in one of the nations most popular magazines.

You are right, there is so many other things that are more important in actuality, its just the symbolism I think. Its not like people are going to choose to put a pic of a dumped wal mart bike in the rolling stone.

Nipple wrote:The thing that really pisses me off is that goose had to look someone at the gate right in the eye and lie to them.

Actually, the rules in the survival guide don't say anything about the possession or wearing of feathers (just feather boas), they merely state that such objects cannot be transported through the gate.

Therefore, since geese do not enter BRC through a gate, they are exempt.

Furthermore, as the Black Rock desert is listed in the migration territory of the Canada Goose (see National Audubon Society, The Sibley Guide to Birds, pp. 74-45, Knopf 2000), they have the right to shit all over the playa and everything else.